


Looked After

by Reibunriinta



Category: Magi: Adventure of Sinbad (Anime), Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Canon Divergent, Drakon going off bc he wants to support his friends, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, needles tw, they're just breifly mentioned but just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 12:13:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17528489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reibunriinta/pseuds/Reibunriinta
Summary: Drakon stays with Ja'far whilst the others go to the Tomb after leaving Zepar's dungeon and the two discuss Ja'far's bad habit of never giving himself any time to heal— both physically and emotionally.





	Looked After

Ja’far flinched a little as he felt the prick of a needle through his chest; he was used to needing stitches after an injury or after one of Shaka’s dumb experiments, or at least he had been back in Sham Lash, but the injury being so close to his heart made him nervous and sensitive. 

“That’s right, keep breathing, you’re doing great!” Drakon encouraged, sitting besides the bed he was resting on, staying out of the healer's way. 

“You don’t...have to patronize me,” he muttered through clenched teeth. 

From the moment they left Zepar’s dungeon, Hinahoho and Drakon had insisted that Ja’far be taken to a medic. Luckily for him, Heliohapt had expert healers who were working miracles on him. Already much of the pain had subsided, the wound had been carefully cleaned, and was getting stitched up before being bandaged. 

Hinahoho had gone to the tomb with Sinbad and the others but Drakon had insisted on staying behind because he didn’t want Ja’far to be alone right now. Ja’far appreciated the gesture, because in truth he was far more shaken by the incident than he wanted to admit, but at the same time he was a little annoyed. 

“That wasn’t my intention,” Drakon said tiredly. “I was simply trying to be encouraging.” 

“I see…” 

Silence fell over them then until after they’d finished stitching Ja’far’s wound and had bandaged it, going to get herbs to help him soothe the pain. Then, Ja’far relaxed a little, allowing himself to decompress. When his eyes filled with tears he quickly wiped them away, hoping that Drakon hadn’t noticed. He was supposed to be fearless, to be able to endure any pain or hardship. He didn’t want to be looked down on anymore than he already was by people. 

“Are you alright?”

Ja’far pursed his lips, trying to keep his voice steady. “I’m fine. I’m used to stuff like this...got years of practice being experimented on.” He tried to keep the edge out of his words; he wasn’t here to get anyone’s pity. His past had been tragic, sure, but after three years he was determined to at least act like he was over it. 

“Ja’far,” Drakon had a softer tone than usual as he regarded his young companion. “I understand that my brother’s horrible general trained you not to express hurt, to associate pain with commonplace, however you are here now. You did something very brave but you got hurt by it; it’s okay to cry and be angry if that’s what you’re feeling.” 

Hesitating for a moment, he stared down at his hands. He knew Drakon was right but it wasn’t as simple as that. His injury was nothing but a nuisance to everyone now that it had outlasted its use, now that he was temporarily out of commision and a burden. Someone to be looked after, he was nothing but a bother to everyone until he could heal from this. He didn’t want to make things worse for anyone by letting them know just how much pain he was in, just how shaken he was by all that had happened. 

Still, it seemed by forcing himself into silence it was only worrying them further; he would never win with these people, would he? 

“I guess…” He didn’t look up. “I’m not angry. I’m just tired of holding everyone back...we should be at the tomb right now, not wasting time for someone to baby me.” 

Drakon huffed then. “You haven’t held anyone back since the day I met you; you certainly haven’t changed in that respect… Even at home most of us struggle to keep up with your restless pace. And I find it deeply concerning that you believe treating nearly fatal wounds is babying you, even you should know better than leaving such things untreated. What would you say if it weren’t you but Masrur with such injuries? Surely you’d be here doing exactly what I am now…” 

Ja’far bit his tongue then, knowing that he couldn’t argue that. If it were any of his comrades in this position he’d be bending over backwards doing anything possible to assist them but the others were different. He was meant for this, even if he wasn’t an assassin anymore he still had the resolve of one. He had all the abilities, all the endurance, the unbridled drive to keep everything moving forward correctly. If he wasn’t putting that to use than what good was he? 

“Masrur is different...he’s strong but he isn’t trained like I am. I was built for this...I shouldn’t be letting this stupid thing hold me back and worry everyone. So what I almost died? I didn’t so I have to keep going.” 

He tried to sit up then to demonstrate this point, however the pain proved to be too much and he groaned, easing back down as sweat dripped off his forehead. 

“Ja’far, you weren’t built for anything!” 

Looking up then, he saw Drakon gesturing vaguely, clearly upset but trying to stay calm as his voice wavered ever so slightly. “You were born; you’re a human child with needs and a whole life and people that care about you. Trust me, I understand feeling like you have to serve a purpose. I too was conditioned in parthevia, even if our upbringings couldn’t be more different the results of that abuse and manipulation is much the same. 

“Do you honestly think that we keep you around just to work half to death and toss into battle? Watching you when you get like this hurts us, it hurts me. If you’re holding anyone back it’s yourself; you neglect yourself, you push us all away when we try to nurture you. You insist on helping everyone else but you don’t accept that help in return even though you’re a child, even though you need help and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone needs help you know? 

“The hardest lesson I ever learned was that I couldn’t take everything on myself, that I needed to trust others and trust myself to make my needs clear and to accept the help I was given. It’s time you started learning to forgive yourself, to let yourself simply exist without a reason, without having to justify every ounce of life you manage to breath into yourself. So please... Please, just let the people who care about you in so that we can help you... ”

Ja’far blinked a few times, completely taken aback. He rarely saw Drakon get worked up like that, and he’d never seen it directed at himself. He knew it made sense; thinking about the way he talked about himself and applying it to the people around him didn’t match up. He’d never tell any of his friends or family that they had to be useful to be worth something, in fact he would fight anyone who ever dared insinuate such a thing. So why didn’t he ever consider how they must have felt hearing the same things spoken about him? Why hadn’t he noticed just how unfairly he was treating himself?

Apparently he’d been stuck in his own head for too long, needed an outside perspective on things. 

As tears filled his eyes again, he didn’t fight it, sniffling softly and wiping at them with his blanket. “You’re right...I guess I never realized how much of what they taught me stuck. I-” He paused to swallow and take a breath. “I’m sorry that hurt you...but, the fact that you care so much means a lot.” 

After all, Drakon wasn’t one to say things that he didn’t mean. The two of them had their ups and downs, there had been times where Ja’far absolutely despised him, however even from the start they had always been honest about that. Drakon had no reason for coating the truth, no reason to say these things if he didn’t really mean it. The truth was this; Drakon, like the rest of their precious found family, cared about him very much and wanted him to be happy. 

They really had come such a long way since Valefor’s dungeon, hadn’t they? 

Face softening, he nodded and settled back down. “It’s alright, you’ve been trying your best. We all want you to get better too but we need you to take your time to heal, if you don’t slow down you never will.” 

“Besides,” he carefully ruffled Ja’far’s hair then. “I promised your mother I would look after you. We don’t want to let her down, now do we?” 

Ja’far gave a half chuckle then; Rurumu was going to fuss over him for weeks after they returned home. He knew he ought to feel guilty but knowing she had worried about him enough to ask Drakon to look after him— and that Drakon had cared about them both enough to do so— made him feel a little more secure. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Eyy thanks for reading! To give a little background to this fic, since the Heliohapt arc came out back two years ago I've always been salty that Ja'far never like...took any time for that massive wound over his heart to heal and no one seemed to care at all and let him go into a dusty tomb with an open injury. Not only is it just unrealistic but it's out of character for everyone there but esp Hinahoho and Drakon, they wouldn't let Ja'far stay injured like that even if he insisted he was okay. This also touched on another thing that bothers me about canon is how no one ever talks to Ja'far about how little he values himself, how he so clearly believes that he has to constantly prove his worth and justify the space that he takes up. I just think it's unrealistic that literally no one around him ever noticed that? So anyway that's what this is; we were robbed and I gotta do everything myself around here so yea asdfgh I hope you enjoyed this! <3


End file.
